You're listening to KFI on demand, don welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Hi Jesus, my pleasure. And I'm curious who chose the books to be
included in the Bible and why the Book of Enoch wasn't included, because from
what I understand, the Book of Enoch was found with the Dead two scrolls
and it mentioned a lot about Jesus and God. And I'm curious to what
you have to say about this. Well, there's a lot of books out
there that make reference to Me, or to the Father, or to Christianity
that wouldn't necessarily be considered the canonized version of scripture. So let's look over
what the Book of Enoch is. First. A lot of people don't know
this, but the Book of Enoch doesn't refer to one book. There's several
what they call pseudopograful book works that claim authorship is Enoch. Enoch is the
son of Jared, obviously the grandfather of Noah, and so there's a lot
of different works out there that say, Okay, this was written by Enoch.
But most people when they're referring to the Book of Enoch tend to be
referring to first Enoch. Now, this work in its entirety exists only originally
and the Ethiopia language, So it's interesting that there's already things that set it
apart from the rest of Scripture. One verse that I want you to think
about is in Jude. Jude three says that the faith that was once and
for all delivered to the saints. A lot of people look for hidden works,
yet by God's own word it states that it's all been delivered. It
is canonized before man ever recognizes it. When you talk about ordaining somebody,
and one of the most beautiful ways I've heard someone speak about being ordained,
they said, no, no, no, I'm not being ordained by man.
I was ordained by God recognized by man. So scripture is ordained by
God, it is canonized by God. That canonization is recognized by man based
on certain things. Things in scripture that make it scripture have to do with
is the authorship true? Is the content in harmony with the rest of scripture
and not some strange thing that somehow now is promoting something else other than that
which is scripture. That wouldn't make sense if it's historical, if it dates
back to the origins properly, both in context and references, that there's nothing
that stands out in a way that would show, hey, this doesn't make
sense. That doesn't mean that the book itself doesn't have value. It's just
not to be put on the same level as the Word of God. So
canonization sometimes is a process. It's a process of people recognizing it. But
the majority of the works were recognized very very early on. It's when people
start adding these and thinking, oh, there's some secret thing that wasn't told
or we didn't learn about first is when there's a problem. So some people
go to one of the tools that is used to judge the validity of a
book of scripture and say, well, you know, if it's talked about
in scripture itself in other books by different authors, than that gives it validity.
And that is one of the tools that is used for understanding the validity
when it comes to the Book of Enoch. Though, you've got a situation
because Jude references Enoch and so enoch Is is referenced in scripture. However,
what yet it is still considered a non canonical book. It's still considered to
be out side of the canon of Scripture, and people get caught up in
that saying, well, if it's referenced in scripture, then how come it's
not scripture. But that's not the case all the time. As you might
remember that Paul references Epimenodes in Titus one twelve, and that Epimenodies is not
any of Epimenoities. Writings dealing with philosophy and the like were not considered scripture.
So you take all of these different references, and you take all of
the historical factors of the writings, and they just don't add up to scripture.
They weren't used by the early Church in that way. They weren't seen
as official documents early on, and so adding them now would be to damage
the integrity of scripture. Doesn't mean that you can't read it, doesn't mean
that you can't enjoy it or read it for what it is. Just don't
put it on the level of a work of God or the Word of God,
because it's not seen that way. And this whole attitude about adding things
or things missing in scripture and that man took them out is really silly.
If you go back to the early Church fathers and you go back to their
their writings and their teachings early on, you couldn't restruct You can reconstruct almost
the entirety of the New Testament just by their teachings because it was used so
much. Now that shows that it's it's used and it's applied in the very
early Church, which shows its validity and its importance. It was believed to
be the word of God prior to any counsels or any of these things,
the counsel of Hippo, any of these it's about it being seen and understood.
Is the word of God originally. And then all of the bibliographical tests
to see that it's you know, it's accurate, and it's historically sensible,
and all of these things will go into showing the validity of scripture, and
that it's canonized or cannon is like a measuring read. It means that it
is the rule of the law, so things can't be added to it or
subtracted to it. And this kind of more popular now, this attitude of
you know, there's mysteries, we have to know something new and it The
silly thing is is people aren't even reading and adapting the things that are already
in front of them. They want something new. Because people are looking for
a loophole or a way out. They're looking for something that will either change
their accountability or somehow make scripture not as demanding on them. And so they're
looking for these ways out. You know, people look for reincardnation. Well,
reincarnation should be in there. It was removed, must have been removed
by the early Church, which is silly. Reincarnation never played a part in
scripture. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
It is appointed for man to die once and then the judgment. It's
never been a part of scripture. But people desire that. So they look
for these hidden works or these works that maybe, well maybe this will this
will help, or this was somehow hidden or you know. And I know
that it's sexy for people to think, oh wow, gosh, it's really
there's there's got to be all these hidden things, and that's that's the way
it work and works. And I'm going to come across this hidden work now
I'm going to have the knowledge that other people don't. And this gnosticism,
this uh, this kind of belief that you're going to be in a secret
knowledge makes people, you know, want to raise these books a higher than
they should be raised. And there's nothing in history that would give them that
authenticity or veracity. And just because they're found in a cave, or they're
found next to something else, or any of these things, there's more to
it than just that. And I know it's interesting. And read them and
have the sense of an old cow. Eat the hay and leave the sticks,
and really take from it that which is good, and leave what's garbage.
But don't look at it or read it. Certainly, do not read
it as the word of God. Annie, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show.
Yes, Jesus Hi. I have a question regarding autistic children. I
have a grandchild who's autistic, and my son and daughter in law asked me,
why would God do this to a child because it's very difficult twenty four
to seven, a showy and financially very burdensome to the family, and especially
difficult for healthy siblings. What would I say to them, Well, why
would they assume that God did it to that child? Well, this is
what I said, God would never do anything like that. But then I
didn't know how to explain further. Any Bible passages you would recommend to read?
Oh, I don't think there's going to be a Bible passage. It's
going to make somebody think differently about the pain that goes on every single day.
You could ask them, why would they ask that question only when it
pertained to them? How come they weren't asking this before they had that child,
when other people had autistic children, they had never been exposed to this
disease. I guess you would call it. Didn't know anyone who had a
child with that syndrome. So now so now their focus is basically of why
did this happen to us? I think possibly yes. And they don't know
what to do about it. They're taking them to therapy and classes and things,
and there has been leaps and bounds of understanding. And I'm glad that
you called because a lot of people don't understand autism, nor do they feel
comfortable talking about it. And a lot of parents are new to the experience
and understanding, and they may not talk about it. And it's important for
people to understand. But to ask the question about God, I don't know
is a very fair one. When we're going to go to a quick break
here, but I want to talk to you. I have some some thoughts
on this question of why did God allow this to happen? In just a
second, Annie, you there, Yes, thanks for thanks for holding um.
Your grandson has autism. Families coming to you asking you why God would
allow this to happen, and that puts you in a position of trying to
defend your faith in a way that might be awkward because when you're dealing with
with a heart issue, you're dealing with people who are in pain. They
don't want an academic answer true, So it's they're they're asking, ah,
you know, just two plus two equals four question, but really it's a
it's a it's a heart issue. Uh, you know, they they're they're
in pain right now and there's nothing that you're going to tell them that's going
to make them go Okay. That makes sense to me. But I want
you to know this is for you that I want you to know that at
what point, at what sickness do you want to remove all of them?
And do you want to remove death and then there's no heaven or do you
want to just make a quick transition like a big escalator to heaven? Or
is should there be no pain? Well, that would imply that all pain
is bad and that's not true, right. Pain can be be good and
pain can be bad, just as pleasure can be good and pleasure can be
bad. I think they just wanted some answers and help in dealing with it.
Well, what the best part about dealing with it is understanding that this
child is no more valuable or less valuable because they have special needs. Yes,
exactly. And you know what, Annie, the most beautiful thing I
ever heard was when someone with a special needs child said, God trusted me
enough to put this child in my life. Wow. And it's it's when
somebody gives you something of value that needs precious concern. If they left their
their prize winning dog with you, people would go, oh, my goodness,
they really trust me. God is saying I'm giving you a child that
needs special attention and special love, and that, to me is is a
statement of how God feels about the family in the positive. Not that it's
on lumping you with this kid. No, that I trust you with this
beautiful child. There is something dealing with the concept of pain that I think
rattles people or make them think differently and want to I want to make this
clear. It's something that comes up quite a bit that pain isn't bad all
the time. There are many things that you do in life where pain shows
that you're producing something. I mean, childbirth is one of them. The
pain of working out, the pain of studying for a test. There's a
lot of pain. Just growth in general causes pain. And I think when
I think, when you go through pain in life, you concern yourself on
the outside with Gosh, how come this is happening to me? Really,
it's it's more of a selfish concern than anything else. It's more like,
how come this happen to me and not someone else? Because when it's happening
in someone else, you're not necessarily answering the question. You get some people,
well how come kids are starving over here? And they ask that question,
But really that's more about diverting an answer. They don't they don't want
to hear an answer, and they don't want it to be about them,
because then you're gonna ask them, well, how come they don't believe?
Or how come they are experiencing God in one way or the other. But
pain is one of those things that seems to stop people in their tracks when
it comes to God. You may you may think, Wow, you know
what, if if there's a God that's all loving and all powerful, there
can't be this pain, there can't be this ugliness, there can't be problems.
And that's just not true. The amount of things that you would have
to that you even enjoy, that you would have to remove from the equation
to eradicate pain would not be a balanced exchange the things that you would lose
to try and rid yourself of pain. Have you ever seen somebody on morphine,
completely doped up on morphine and you ask them how you feeling fine?
Are you in pain? No? But do you think they're aware of pleasure?
Really? Either? Sometimes when you dull the pain, it can cause
more problems than you think. The misconception about lepers is that they fall apart,
like lepers are decaying, and that's not necessarily true, although that does
play a part in the illness. But a lot of the problems that lepers
have is that they're The way they feel and sense things is different. Their
nerves start to die, so they don't know what's hot, they don't know
what's heavy, they don't know they don't experience things the same way. So
leprosy starts to break down the nervous system and the nerves and feeling, and
so you'll you'll pick up something hot, you'll pick up something too heavy that
will start to destroy the workings of your body. That pain is a necessity,
it's an important necessity to life, to help you have balance, true
balance, and understand things, understand what's bad for you, what's good for
you, and also knowing that there's times when that pain is beneficial, and
to learn that not all pleasure is good. This attitude, this heatednistic kind
of attitude that everything has to feel good to be good, is garbage.
And you're being fed that day in and day out. And it comes to
the point where when in your own home or your own family, or your
own relationships, you can't even connect anymore because the minute there's a fight,
there's an argument, there's anything slightly unpleasant, you want out. You don't
want to experience that anymore. And pain has that purpose. Like the leper.
If you if you don't have those feelings, if you don't have those
tiny senses, those nerve endings, you'll grab the hot pan and burn right
through your flesh. Pain is good, It has a purpose. It's not
always good, but it has a purpose, and the purpose is good.
The end result is good, either that pain steers you into a path of
righteousness or understanding it steers you away from greater danger. It's this attitude,
though, getting to this place where where you don't want any of it in
your life, where you almost want to be numb to the realities of pain,
put you in a position to not be able to truly absorb the value
of pleasure. The very things that you love in life, that you cherish,
nobility, courage, heroics, love, All of these things mean nothing
without adversity, hate, indifference. They have to exist for you to find
and to appreciate. That's the purpose of this life. In a nutshell,
the meaning of life is to utilize your gifts and abilities along lines of excellence
to the edification of others and to the edification of yourself, to the glory
of God. And that doesn't mean no pain. And if that becomes your
goal, if it becomes your goal solely to rid yourself of pain, that's
why people bloat up and eat so much till they're going to pop. That
is why people drown themselves in alcohol and drugs and sex, because it's this
desire to seek only pleasure, this epicurean type attitude that you just are going
to get to this place where all all is pleasurable. It is not true.
Even Heaven, which is arguably the place where all is pleasurable, is
pleasurable for those that seek and want to know God. Which is why there's
a hell, because there are people that don't want to seek and don't want
to know God. And I won't force that, The Father won't force that.
So God's love comes this other place where God is not And why is
it torture Because it's absent of the true nature of the salvation power of God.
So that absence is what's felt. God is in your life through all
the things you're experiencing. And does that mean that God is causing pain in
your life? No? God allows these things. God allows them so that
you can learn, so that you have a life full of richness that is
not some kind of Pollyanna synthetic pink existence. Everything you experience in life,
go through your memories today, from weddings to uh, you know, births,
to birthdays to any major experience, and the thing that you will tell
people about that experience is most likely what went wrong, not what went right.
You're not going to believe this. On my wedding day, my sister
backed up into my mother in law's car. They hadn't even met. That's
what you'll tell people, because that's what has meaning. The things that you
love about your your partner in life, look into their eyes. The things
that you find most endearing are the things they hate about themselves. The imperfections
that they don't like are the things that to you are the uniqueness and their
value because they're different. Old diamonds, These things aren't valuable because they're like
everything else. They're valuable because they're they're different. Goodness to grant it.
Grant it may be looking over at gold going that is ugly. Look how
different it looks Cole sitting there staring at diamonds. Yeah, apparently can't handle
the heat and the pressure over here. M hm, they just go transparent.
But that's the beauty. Does that mean I want you to be in
constant pain? No? But there is something there that is beautiful and powerful.
And as we've talked about many times on the air, a lovely quote
from C. S. Lewis that God whispers to you in your pleasure.
God speaks to you and your conscience, and God screams to you and your
pain. The pain is a way to wake up a morally deaf world.
And so when you're cursing God about the pain in your life and going why
me, and why now? And why this and why that? Think about
this that as those atheists or those nonbelievers look around and say pain and evil
and trials point to the fact there is no God. On the contrary,
it points to the very existence of a God, a God that shows you
the difference between pain and pleasure, that makes you even seek out pleasure,
knowing that there's something better than just what's here. Pain points to a loving
God, not away from him. Sandra Sondra, Welcome to the Jesus Christ
Show. Hi, Jesus. I'd like to ask a question that's come up
many many times throughout my life, okay, and that is the mysterious years
of your youth. There's talk that you disappeared in that there's no documentation of
where you were, and I was always curious about where you were. And
please forgive me if I'm being out a line and asking no, I was
wondering where you went for what purpose, and is it's something we need to
know about it. It's a wonderful question. There's a lot of so called
mystery around this, and it's quite silly when you look at it with in
its context and you just go, okay, well, what makes sense here?
And what is the most reasonable explanation? Have you ever received or sent?
During the holidays? Around Christmas time, people tend to write those kind
of news about their family. Have you seen those? And say such and
such as graduating or so and so just got married. Do they explain everything
that took place over the year or only the mile markers, the big things
like weddings. They don't say so and so got up this morning and he
had juice with some toast, and then he went to the restroom and then
kind of laid around for a while, watched a little bit of TV.
That would be huge and voluminous as a as a note to send to somebody,
right, it would be huge. So they only take the parts that
are pertained to the story in which they're telling. In this case, it's
mostly about what's going on the big things that are going on in their life.
Well, the Bible is not different from that. The Bible is similar
in the sense that the Bible is looking at things that pertain to your spirituality.
That's why it doesn't say, you know, if somebody's building a house,
they should be using a biscuit joiner for the joints rather than because it's
not a it's not about carpentry, although there's carpentry that's talked about in scripture.
It's about your spirituality and it's about your relationship with God. So only
those things that pertain to that are important in scripture. So you have my
birth, which is important. You have up until my age of twelve.
At that age, you're looking at the first time in public that I made
the proclamation to my parents. If you remember, my mother and my foster
father come looking for me and they said where were you? And I was
reading and I said, don't you know, I'm to be about my father's
business. It was the first time that I had verbalized that in the context
of dealing with my parents. That's a big deal. So that's in scripture.
Then you don't hear anything until I'm thirty when I start my ministry.
So you're looking at those things and people say, well, what about those
supposed last years in there what happened during the years. However, if you
read scripture closely, you'll see that it makes a statement for what takes place.
It says, when I start my ministry, what did they say?
They didn't say, who is this guy? They said, isn't that Jesus,
the son of Joseph the carpenter. If I had been gone for eighteen
years, they wouldn't have recognized me in any way, shape or form.
They recognized me because I was still in the community, still working, still
working with my foster father Joseph, and still working in the carpentry shop there.
I didn't go to Tibet to learn how to levitate. I didn't go
anywhere to learn reincarnation or any of these things that people trying to espouse and
say that it's somehow extracted from scripture. None of that makes sense in context.
What does make sense in context is that I was there the whole time.
I just was doing normal things. It wasn't about my ministry. It
wasn't until that first mirror at the wedding at Cana where I turned the water
into wine that they started recording that or writing that because that was pertinent to
the story. Whereas waking up, building a table, building a chair was
not. But they recognized who I was. They knew who I was,
So it wasn't a matter of me being gone and then coming back. It
was that they saw me there. They that was actually a barrier between me
being their Christ. They had a harder time accepting that because they knew me,
And so that that plays into that. Also understanding that even it said
in scripture that all the things that I did could add volumes, now it
was that in ministry. So all the things I did in three years was
going to add volumes. No, everything without throughout the entirety of my life.
Thank you for joining me this Sunday. I hope you joined me every
Sunday more importantly than all the craziness us. Remember these words, I am
with you always KF I am six forty on demand